Eden
by ncfan
Summary: -Hitsugaya x Hinamori, Rangiku- There was paradise, once.


**Characters**: Rangiku, Hitsugaya, Hinamori**  
Summary**: There was paradise, once, but it was gone all too soon.**  
Pairings**: HinaAizen, HitsuHina**  
Warnings/Spoilers**: spoilers for Soul Society arc**  
Timeline**: pre-manga to Soul Society arc**  
Disclaimer**: I don't own Bleach.

* * *

I watched. I couldn't help but watch, after all, since the play they performed in took place across my path and the life I lived from day to day. It was happening under my nose so I had to watch, and it was an enjoyable play, at first, so watching wasn't too difficult.

It all started when Kurosaki-taicho vanished. I held down the Tenth Division for years after he disappeared, _somehow_ managed to keep the place from swimming in paperwork (That stuff _never_ goes away; have you noticed? I think it spawns on locker room floors.), and without a replacement captain too. After six years, Yamamoto-soutaicho finally declared him dead, but I never believed it, not for a minute, and I still don't. I still say Kurosaki-taicho met some girl in the human world who can put up with his craziness, settled down and had three kids. It seems like the sort of thing he'd do.

Then, they sent an officer from the Ninth who'd successfully applied for the position to replace Kurosaki-taicho.

The moment I first met Hitsugaya Toshiro, there was only one thought running through my mind, and it wasn't nearly as epic as the thoughts of first meetings tend to be.

_He's so… short._

Honestly, I was sure someone was pulling my leg. Since Tousen-taicho had no sense of humor—and still doesn't, wherever he is these days—I figured Kiyone and Sentarou from the Thirteenth were probably trying to mess with my head again. On the off chance that they weren't, and that this wasn't some horrible, misfired joke, I kept a straight face and was as courteous as I could manage. Treating my new captain like he was a joke would _not_ have been a good way to start off our working relationship.

I soon discovered that this was no joke, if only from the way Toshiro—_Hitsugaya-taicho_, I told myself, and thought of him as nothing but that from then on out—behaved. He was perfectly serious—never smiled—and either Tousen-taicho, Yamamoto-soutaicho or someone else, had impressed upon him just how important his new position would be, or Hitsugaya-taicho simply knew, instinctively, that he was going to have to always be on his dignity if he wanted to be taken seriously.

After all, a boy only four feet and four inches in height, who resembled something so much as a puny ten year old who had yet to hit puberty and whose voice hadn't even broken yet wasn't what anyone could call a figure that demanded respect. Especially when he had as a lieutenant a woman who was over twice his age and well over a foot taller than him.

We learned to work together. Though I exasperated him to no end and had a distressing (distressing to Hitsugaya-taicho anyway) tendency to dump all my paperwork on him, I like to think that Hitsugaya-taicho is at least somewhat fond of me. At least he is when I get him alka-seltzer and watermelon for the days when he literally _can not_ leave the office.

And I grew to like him too. He was incredibly stuffy—still is—but due to that his insecurity was so incredibly obvious that I couldn't help but pity him a little bit. I never expressed it of course; Hitsugaya-taicho in his early days as the captain of the Tenth had an ego that was incredibly easy to bruise, so about the only time I spoke to him at first was to hand him paperwork and snark about the antics of our subordinates. He seemed to appreciate the effort.

A month after Hitsugaya-taicho became such, I met Hinamori for the first time.

I remember her in those days when we were all still happy and ignorant of our features as a smiling, laughing girl. Tiny, though not as much as Hitsugaya-taicho (much to his ire), with silky dark hair tied back, pale skin and dancing brown eyes. So full of life, so innocent, and so happy.

She made me raise an eyebrow more than once, at first. The way she showed far more familiarity with Hitsugaya-taicho than he was comfortable with made me pretty sure she had a death wish; clear in my mind was the memory of what Hitsugaya-taicho did to one idiot of ours who had the stupidity to refer to him as Toshiro. After learning that they had been raised together though, I could see that there was no harm in it and that Hinamori didn't mean to hurt him, not really; she was simply still living in a time that had long since passed. And Hitsugaya-taicho really didn't mind either, at some intervals anyways; apart from the occasional half-hearted "It's Hitsugaya-_taicho_ now, Hinamori", he made no protest at being referred to as Hitsugaya-kun. With other nicknames, on the other hand… Well, let's just say I learned to snicker whenever I witnessed the blow-up following an ill-though utterance of "Shiro-chan."

As time went on, I started to notice a pattern in Hitsugaya-taicho's behavior towards Hinamori and it just made me smile. Gin always said that I couldn't resist the urge to play matchmaker but, for the most part, I restrained myself. I cheered him on in silence and watched for any signs of blossoming romance over the top of the latest issue of _Vogue_ Magazine.

For the first few years, everything was happy in my eyes. We had the usual grief about Hollows and men not coming back and all that. It was a bit like Eden, before the snake showed up and had to ruin everything. Hinamori grinned and giggled, Hitsugaya-taicho blushed and tried not to let anyone see, and I read _Vogue _uninterrupted and watched.

Then, Hinamori became the lieutenant of her division, and things started to change.

She was always talking about her captain. I had met Aizen-taicho, and I'll admit, the man was… Mesmerizing. Some air of charisma and glamour and mystery beneath all the mild-mannered behavior he wanted us to believe was reality. And yeah, he was—is—pretty damn good-looking; the glasses helped, without a doubt. It was only fair that Hinamori would idolize him. He was one of the older captains—the upper echelons are mostly populated by young blood these days—he was experienced, kindly and wise. Anyone working under him directly (who wasn't Gin) could be forgiven for being a bit entranced by him.

But I had to notice. She was _always_ talking about her captain. And I had to notice the way she looked at her captain whenever I saw the two of them together.

_Well damn._

On the surface, nothing seemed to have changed between Hinamori and Hitsugaya-taicho, nothing at all. She still called him Hitsugaya-kun and Shiro-chan and he still blushed a little at the former and screeched at the latter; by far not the sort of behavior a captain was supposed to exhibit.

That was only the surface. Beneath it, there was a distance growing greater and greater, a gulf growing deeper by the second.

I dug my nose into _Vogue_, and even though the articles on the latest fashions in women's clothing gave me no comfort, I still read, and didn't look.

Just like I try not to look now, when Hinamori's ashen-faced and empty-eyed on a hospital bed, and Hitsugaya-taicho, still swathed in bandages and moving stiffly, visits her every day and tries to get her to wake up.

He's not the one she wants.

The snake's made its way into Eden, and burrowed at its heart, it refuses to leave.


End file.
